Saturday, 19 July 2014

REVIEW: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Title: Shiver

Author: Maggie Stiefvater

Genre: YA, fantasy, romance

Edition language I read it in: Spanish

Length: 429 pages

Source: Bought

For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf—her wolf—is a chilling presence she can't seem to live without.Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human… until the cold makes him shift back again.Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It's her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human—or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever.

I had already been able to buy physical books after arguing with my dad for a complete evening. Sorry, dad. You were right. I shouldn't have spent any money on Shiver.

I may get shaking heads and bad comments after this, but Shiver reminded me way too much of Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. I didn't like it.
A hundred pages into the book and I was all like "Wow, this is like poetry! So good! [Forgive me for the following words] wow to gud #suchbook!"
The pleasure didn't last long. At about 150 pages I already had had enough. Too many words, too many extra pages. Too much –as they'd say in spanish– güiri güiri (weeree weeree, means too much talking).
Basically, Shiver is about a teenage girl who has been in love with a wolf for six years, since it saved her from being ripped apart by members of his pack. Every winter he returns and they pass hours looking at each other (including moments in which the wolf stared through her room window and saw her naked). Then, on summer the pack disappears.
It was kind of a good idea until the part in which Grace, the main character, gets a severe case of bestiality. I can't describe how uncomfortable I felt every time she talked about the wolf in a romantic way... I kinda can explain why Olivia (her best friend) left her after a few pages. Grace! Open your eyes! You're romantically obsessed with a wild dog! Nope, forget it, it was a werewolf, so everything is right now.
Not.
Now, let's talk about the character's development. Oh, we can't. Basically there wasn't any, unless maybe Grace became more annoying with every page turn.
I'm so, very sorry, but I couldn't help feeling so much hatred towards this book, maybe because is the first physical book I've read in a while and I expected it to be totally awesome... or maybe is the many words, not as many development I had to go through this morning while finishing it (finally).
This book is slow, has too many sense-less poems in it, and basically, isn't enjoyable for someone who didn't like Twilight... probably Twilight fans won't like it either, since it seems to be some kind of copy of Stephanie Meyer.

The only thing I could say I kind of liked...

...was the way Maggie writes at some points, although it can get annoying at times, she clearly has some talent. Perhaps she could use some polishing, but she's alright.
Also, the cover was wonderful, I really, really liked it. It has some hidden stuff, which is pretty cool. But the book itself isn't worth of this cool cover, and sadly, the cover is by the editors, not by the author.